There has been known a photographic processing device which is capable of automatically performing processings such as exposure, development, bleaching and fixing, stabilizing and the like with respect to a photosensitive material such as a photographic printing paper. In exposing the photosensitive material using such a photographic processing device, a direct (analogue) exposure which exposes the photosensitive material by making use of a transmitting light of a photographic film has been widely performed. On the other hand, recently, a so-called digital exposure which exposes the photosensitive material using light which is controlled in response to digital image signals obtained by picking up pictures of a film using a film scanner having a pick-up element such as a CCD has been commercialized. By adopting the digital exposure method, various image processings such as the color correction, the concentration correction, sharpening processing and the like can be performed with high degree of freedom and, at the same time, the rapid additional printing can be performed. Further, it is possible to obtain favorable prints of high quality which exhibits the excellent reproducibility of color and concentration and the excellent resolution.
There may be a case that for accurately and efficiently reading images recorded in a film (usually, a positive film) for one frame held by a mount (usually mount) made of paper or plastic, a mount carrier unit which transports the mount to a film scanning position is mounted on the film scanner.
One example of such a mount carrier unit is described in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 112714/1999. The mount carrier unit described in this publication includes mount accommodating boxes (stockers) at both sides of a carrier body. Then, with respect to this mount carrier unit, mounts which are accommodated in one mount accommodating box are fed to the carrier body and the mounts are transferred to and are accommodated in the other mount accommodating box by way of a scanning position together with the carrier body in a state that the mount is clamped by a pair of rollers in the inside of the carrier body.
In scanning the mounts corresponding to a plurality of orders at a time using a film scanner on which the above-mentioned mount carrier unit is mounted, these mounts may be accommodated in the mount accommodating box in such a manner that the mounts for a plurality of orders are arranged to form one stack. However, according to the technique disclosed in the above-mentioned publication, it is difficult to determine a boundary between orders and hence, when the mounts corresponding to a plurality of orders are accommodated in the mount accommodating box such that the mounts are arranged as a unit, it is impossible to prepare an index print for each order or to sort the prints for each order.
Accordingly, when it is necessary to prepare the index prints for each order, a plurality of mount accommodating boxes each of which accommodate the mounts for one order are mounted on the scanner sequentially by replacing the box each time the mounts are discharged from the mount accommodating box, or alternatively, after the mounts for one order in the mount accommodating box are discharged, the mounts for next one order are accommodated in the box. Such an exchanging operation and mount additional accommodating operation are not so cumbersome when the number of mounts for one order is relatively large. However, when the number of mounts for one order is small, there arises a case in which a very small number of mounts are accommodated in the mount accommodating box compared to the allowable number of mounts which can be accommodated in the mount accommodating box thus leading to the ineffective use of the mount accommodating box. In this case, it is necessary to perform the above-mentioned operation frequently and this makes the operation extremely cumbersome so that a considerable time is required to complete the scanning. Further, even when the prints or the like are subjected to the automatic processing including the scanning of the mounts, since the scanning for one order is completed instantly so that there arises a disadvantage that an operator has to perform the above-mentioned operation while always standing beside the scanner.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a mount carrier unit which is suitable for rapidly scanning mounts corresponding to a plurality of orders without performing a cumbersome operation.
Further, it is another object of the present invention to provide a film scanner which is capable of rapidly scanning the mounts corresponding to a plurality of orders without performing a cumbersome operation.